Today morning Alex - a friend of mine - wrote me a mail, pointing me to a
pcwelt.de
article with the header "Die illegalsten Websites der Welt - Teil 1" (engl. transl: "The most illegal websites of the
world - Part 1"). The
article had
the following german content (
direct
link):
Homepage: Stadtplan einbinden
Darum geht’s: Wer seine eigene Homepage gestaltet, ist vielleicht
versucht, einen Stadtplan – etwa als bessere Anfahrtsskizze – einzubauen. Und weil es so einfach ist, holt er
ihn sich von einem Stadtplandienst im Internet, etwa Google Maps oder Map 24.
So gefährlich ist es: Das kann teuer werden. Wer ohne Genehmigung des
Dienstes eine Karte für die eigene Site verwendet, verstößt gegen das Urheberrecht. Der Streitwert bei
Abmahnungen wird generell extrem hoch angegeben, um den Abgemahnten von einem Prozess abzuschrecken. Denn die
Anwaltskosten richten sich in der Regel nach dem Streitwert einer Sache.
I'll try to briefly translate its meaning. The article basically says that there are many
people around the web which try to integrate a city map or direction sketch on their personal website. In such a
case Google Maps or Map 24 offer nice services. (Google) "Mapplets" offer for instance a nice way for adding a
small, interactive and personalized Google Map on ones website (see for instance
this
sample). According to the article however, placing such maps (including the Google ones) on a website without the
permission of the map-data-providing service would violate their copyright. This - so the article - could therefore
quickly become quite costly for the website owner due to legal fees.
In my eyes the article is wrong or
at least not really written clearly when it says (indirectly) that this violation of the copyright holds also for
the Google Maps. This would be totally contrary to the philosophy of the Google Map API and the Mapplets. However
to be sure I exchanged some e-mails with Pamela Fox (Google Maps Engineer), which also confirmed me that there is
no legal issue with the Google Mapplets or API as long as one stays inside their terms of service. Google has the
permission from the data provider to allow the use of their maps by others through the API or Mapplets. Moreover
there is usually by default a link on the map pointing to the terms of service and the copyright holders. So as
long as those links are clearly visible, everything is fine. What could be a problem is when people create
screenshots of the map and place only a part of it on their website (as image) without placing a note of the
copyright holder.
I did however not inform myself about the legal situation with the
Map24
service.
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